Happy Birthday, Grant!

51 years beautiful!

God bless you, my friend!

These two songs are from Grant's forthcoming album,

"The Argument."

I have no idea exactly when it's forthcoming,

but maybe within the year?

Fingers crossed...

And please, if you can, help kickstart Every Everything.

Grant's story needs to be told.

Every little bit helps reach the goal!

Finally! Please help if you can!

I just got word on this excellent project this morning, and if there was ever a time when I wished I could WIN BIG in the lottery, this is it. Not for the perks I could get for being a big contributor. I wouldn't care if the director didn't give me a single extra thing for my contribution. Having the project completed would be enough, which is not to say I am ungrateful for the perks I'm being offered for my contribution. Au contraire. I think it's awfully nice that he is offering perks to folks who make a donation, but...

To quote immortal first words ever uttered to me by Grant Hart, albeit in an entirely different context, "It's about f*cking time!"

Director Gorman Bechard's next project is to a be a documentary about the life and times of Grant Hart. And it's about f*cking time the story got told, in my not-so-humble-opinion. A link to the fund-raising site is posted at the end of this entry; at least have a look at the promotional trailer, and if it moves you to part with a few bucks, great! Every little bit will help.

Every Everything

"Fiber Friday" Eye Candy

So much working on the business this week, I didn't accomplish a real lot of knitting or spinning, but at least there are a couple of things to show for another week's passing.

This is "Canyon Sunset," obtained from Heavenly Fiber. I lost the card with the fiber content info, so am waiting to hear back from the seller. I'm pretty sure there's wool (or maybe alpaca?) and some silk, and a couple of colors of glitzy stuff. I loooooove sparkle, and look at all the PURPLE!!!! 2 ply, 1.9 oz, 172 yards, and I still have another equal-size batt to spin and ply!

ETA -- And the fiber content is...Merino, Blue Faced Leicester, milk fiber, faux cashmere, silk, and carbonized bamboo! Yummmmmm...

On the designing front, I wrote up a pattern for this little scarf yesterday, and now am test-knitting it. One, this will give me pictures of a finished item to use in my pattern leaflet. Two, the knitting of it will reveal, and enable me to correct, any and all mistakes I may have made in the writing. So far, so good. I think I have now caught them all.
The roving came from The Knotty Ewe. It's hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester wool. I spun it into a 2 ply yarn a few months ago, and I have a total of 305 yards to use in this project. I don't know what that will translate into, as far as total length of the scarf goes. However, I'm aiming to market the pattern as a "use up your handspun" project. Use any gauge yarn you like, and whatever needles match up with it, and the fabric you hope to produce, and off you go. Knit 'til you a) run out of your chosen yarn, or b) your scarf reaches the desired total length (bearing in mind, of course, that it will stretch and lengthen after washing).
The yarn is really soft and has a nice halo. This is the first time I have tried to use any of my handspun BFL yarns. Needless to say, I'm in love, and think there will be a lot more of this sort of yarn in my future.
Not much else to report, beyond that I now have a singing gig every other week at a local RC parish. I signed up to cantor Mass at 7:30 AM every other Sunday. Am I mad? Well, no. I'm a morning person, and I enjoy the meditative quality of that early Mass. I have not done any solo singing in public for years, and have only been singing alone in my room when no one is home. So, I'm a bit nervous, but also excited. I just hope I do OK and don't get overcome by last-minute stage fright.

Go figure. I used to perform a LOT, semi-professionally, and I sang in choirs in Providence and Boston with no fear at all. But too much negative input and petty jealousy and the tangled web of group politics left me feeling like there was nothing in the world I could do right, so bit by bit, I gave up the whole business. Something that should have been beautiful and uplifting quickly became exhausting and depressing. Enough was enough.

Part of me thinks I'm out of my mind for even thinking about doing this. But it has, after all, been nearly 10 years since The Great Praise Band Debacle/Crucifixion. I would like to think that the sense of security I've been lulled into is not false this time.

Excited-scared-excited-scared-excited...oh, help!

The Serbian Spindle

I think it was just about a month ago, when I stumbled across a lady on Ravelry, who happens to live in Serbia, and happens to buy hand made spindles from the local purveyors of such things. She had a bunch on hand that she was hoping to sell, so I wrote to her and learned I could have one for a mere $5.00, plus $10.00 for shipping. Well! What a deal! So, I ordered one and, not knowing how long it might take for the spindle to arrive on my doorstep, I sort of forgot about it.

Today, there was a package in the mailbox, and the return address said Serbia. It took me a minute to remember having ordered the spindle, and I gleefully tore of the package and went to find the perfect fiber for my first try.

I had some lovely pin-drafted roving I scored at the Happy Hands Yankee Swap around Christmastime, and that seemed perfect: a pretty color, and properly rustic.

It took me quite awhile to get the hang of it, and while I am getting a pretty sturdy thick-and-thin single for my trouble, I probably am not spinning EXACTLY like a Serbian lady would.

It's not a supported spindle, nor is it a drop spindle. It's somewhere in between, and you spin off the point, as one would do with a Navajo spindle. One flicks the tip of the spindle between thumb and forefinger, and if it's being done properly, there will be a little "pop" sound on each spin. It's actually quite a cheerful sound, and made me think of "Pop Goes the Weasel."

So, as you can see, this spindle is rather plain and simple. Nothing ornate about it. It's a basic tool: a workhorse. I think it's quite elegant in its austerity.

For something so light weight, it spins a rather heavy yarn, and it reminds me a lot of the skein Grant bought me in Serbia a couple of years ago. Based on the way my yarn is spinning up, I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps that beautiful skein of handspun was actually spindle spun rather than wheel spun. I suppose I'll never know, but that does not stop me wondering!

New Creations

Being an avid spindler with a vast collection of spindles and multiple projects-in-progress, it really was sort of shocking that I only possessed one wrist distaff. So, a couple of weeks ago, I made one for myself, then made another, just for a lark, and listed it in my store. I figured it would sit there a long time, so imagine my surprise when it sold with an hour!

So, I made a second one, and it sold very quickly, too, and then I got a request for a custom one, and then a request to barter a distaff and some yarn for some luscious spinning fibers!

I made a bunch more. This one is one of my favorites so far. It lives in Minnesota now, with a very happy owner who says she wonders how she ever managed to spindle without one. Well!

This next one was a custom order. The lady wanted a chartreuse sort of mix, and that's exactly what she got! I love this one, too.

And here's a custom one I just made today. Could I stand to make it with supplies I already hand on hand? Of course not! The good news is, I have enough of the yarn and beads to make a couple more, so I'll cover my costs and make a wee profit, too. I love making these things, even though they are a bit time-consuming. (It takes me about an hour, if I don't have any interruptions).

Now, because I can't show this off on Ravelry until I've mailed my samples, let me introduce my "Blinded by Science" hand-blended, hand-pulled, hand chained roving, "Curie." Unfortunately, the picture doesn't quite capture the vivid lime green of the Angelina Glitz I blended in with the Merino wool. But I was thinking of Marie Curie, and her tons of pitchblende, and her Radium. This fiber puts me in mind of Marie walking into that shed and seeing the glow of radium for the first time. Wild. Not fully isolated yet. Just...glowing in the dark from piles and piles of pitchblende.

OK, maybe it wasn't really quite like that, but permit me to hang on to my romantic notions....

It's Not About the Haircut...

I can't argue with success. As of this morning, I was down a total of 17 lbs. When I started Weight Watchers on January 3rd, I weighed 212.8 lbs. Around the holidays, which is when the picture on the left was taken, I would guess I weighed a bit more than that.

If this keeps up, I am going to need to make a trip to Sallie's Boutique and see if I can find some smaller pants, cheap. Even the smaller size pants I have now, from my last go-round with Weight Watchers, are fitting me like clown pants!

What amazes me is I can already see a BIG difference in my face, especially in my nose and chin. Who would ever think of someone's NOSE getting fat? But it was definitely looking more bulbous than pointy.

I celebrated by dusting off the hair clippers and mowing my head, and now I feel more like myself again.

I also have a new song in the works...a blues tune about my wool obsession...and I know a bunch of knitting and spinning folks who will just about die laughing when they hear it. I just need to be absolutely certain of how I intend to perform it before I make a recording. Once it's set and uploaded, I'll post a link here.

Yesterday was a marathon day of working on my shop, so today I have not really done anything with wool, beyond a little bit of knitting on a hat I am test-knitting for a designing friend. It's coming out nicely, but I am taking my time and enjoying the process, and using the "Space Jazz" yarn I posted pictures of earlier in the week. It's wonderful yarn to work with, even if I do say so myself. :-)

Edited to Add -- Adorable teapot earrings by Cofanetto! People, this woman absolutely SINGS with fimo clay creations! I have a pair of her blue-flowered teapots, too -- a present she sent me when I was having a bad time and feeling, very, very down. Let me tell you, it is IMPOSSIBLE to feel "down" when I look at these little teapots, and I really treasure them!

Back to Etsy!

Well, from what I've heard from a bunch of my fellow vendors and customers, no one really likes Artfire very much, so after a little over a month, I've quit that venue and migrated back to Etsy. There is now a "widget" in my sidebar, below my profile info, that will give you a glimpse of some of the items I currently have for sale. If you like something you see, just click on it, and you'll be magically whisked away to that particular item's page in my shop. Ta-daaaaaa! There's lots of cool new stuff, including some hand-painted Merino/Cashmere/Nylon blend yarns. Please do take a look if you feel so inclined, and if you love anything in particular, grab it while you can. I dye/hand-paint yarns in very small batches, and while all my colorways may be approximated again in the future, they will never be duplicated exactly.

Weight Watchers has been going rather well, and I am down a whopping 15.6 pounds since I began this journey on January 3rd. This puts me under 200 pounds for the first time in awhile, and I have been able to maintain this status for the last week or so, and have been losing a bit every week, slowly but surely. Now, if I could just get to a point where I enjoy exercising and actually want to do it...

Well, up and down the stairs several times a day to stoke the furnace with wood will have to suffice. That, and sitting down at the spinning wheel. See, a long time ago, I made sure I bought a double treadle wheel, so at least there would be the illusion of exercise, and maybe it's not such a joke after all. Treadling steadily with both feet for a couple of hours every day is a gentle form of exercise, and I don't notice that it's work, because I'm too busy watching my yarns take shape. And do they ever take shape! Here are a few examples.

This is "Black Gold," a totally sumptuous and decadent blend of gold silk and black alpaca. I have no idea what it wants to be yet, but it sure is gorgeous!

"Pumpkins A-glow" is a wonderful blend of superwash Merino wool, Cashmere, and Nylon. I guess, because of the nylon component, this means the yarn would make good socks, but somehow I cannot justify putting anything with cashmere in it on my feet!

The lady who made the batt I spun this next one from did not have a name for the batt, and since it made me think of outer-space and general delightful astronomical oddity, I decided to name it after a favorite song of Grant's. "Space Jazz." It's got alpaca in it, and I think some wool, and firestar, and angelina, and God only knows what else. Gorgeous and soft. It is being made into a hat I'm test-knitting for a designer friend on Ravelry, and I can't wait to wear it!

And last, but certainly not least, is a piece I'm especially proud of for a couple of reasons. One, this was my first attempt at dyeing yarn with black walnut juice. I had an abundance of walnuts fall from the trees after Hurricane Irene blew through, and thought it was high time to see what I could do with them. We got as far as gathering a big bucketful and putting the bucket in the garage. Luckily, before I forgot about them completely, I mentioned my plan to Grant, and one day after I had forgotten, he wrote and asked what kinds of yarn I was planning to dye, and cautioned me to make sure I wore gloves when I started working with the stuff.

There is nothing like a nudge from someone by whom I do not want to be perceived as a slacker, and it wasn't long after that when I got some fabulous "tweed" yarn dyeables, and into the kettle of prepared walnut juice they went. It was totally a done deal, unbeknownst to himself until the box landed on his doorstep, that Grant would get the first item I ever made from the stuff. I started this scarf in the car on the way to Maine on December 29th, and finished it in the car on the way home from Maine on New Year's Day. I'm rather proud of it, and delighted that it will be helping to keep my singing friend's golden throat warm and protected during the bitterest part of the winter.